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SC says marriage not broken even if spouses stay separately

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has said that the marriage should not be taken as broken down irretrievably just because the parties are living separately, adding that courts must find out who among the couple was responsible for breaking the marital tie. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi made the observation in an order passed on November 14 while setting aside a high court ruling, allowing husbands plea for divorce, and directed the HC bench to consider the matter afresh. We may hasten to add that courts, in recent times, often observe that since the parties are living separately, the marriage should be taken to have broken irretrievably. However, before jumping to such a conclusion, it is imperative upon the family court or the high court to determine as to who out of the two is responsible for breaking the marital tie and forcing the other to live separately, the apex court said. It added that unless there was cogent evidence for willful desertion or refusal to cohabit and look after the other spouse, the finding of marriage having been broken irretrievably is likely to have devastating effects, especially on the children. The arrival of such a conclusion puts the courts under an onerous duty to deeply analyse the entire evidence on record, consider the social circumstances and the background of the parties, and various other factors We do not find that any such exercise has been undertaken by the high court in the instant case, the bench said. The woman had moved the SC against an order of the Uttarakhand HC that had allowed her husbands plea for divorce on the ground of cruelty, accepting his plea of alleged mental cruelty suffered by him. The couple got married in 2009 and has a son from the wedlock. The apex court noted that the wife was thrown out of the matrimonial home and forced to live separately. Also, it was not in dispute that the child was in her custody from the very beginning, it noted.

26 Nov 2025 7:45 am